Here’s a reality check nobody asked for: the beginning of the ‘80s is as far away in time as is the year 2068. Yeah, time flies when we’re doom-scrolling cat memes.
So, why not celebrate it with a trip down memory lane with the help of Totally Awesome 80s, an Instagram page that shares all things ‘80s (with a little bit of ‘70s and ‘90s sprinkled in between).
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So, Totally Awesome 80s is an Instagram page (Facebook as well) dedicated to celebrating one of the most iconic decades of the last century—the awesome '80s, mixed in with a little bit of the '70s and the '90s.
The page was created back in mid 2018 and has since then posted nearly 8,000 bits of content and amassed a following of 325,000 people.
Yes!!! I’m borderline Gen Z/Alpha but the town I lived in for Elementary school was small and rural enough that we could safely play in our cul-de-sac most of the time. However I do remember doing this the rare times a car came through!
I grew up on a dead end road on a hill. No street games. 😔 But we did play in the woods in the old coal mine ruins!
Didn't have that problem, we played in a Cul-De-Sac or Closed Road, so the only cars coming in and out were residents going to and from work.
Navy kid. I used to steal Norden bombsights from junkyard planes in Patuxent MD. Top secret in WWII.Like a ten pound watch.
We painted bases and home plate in our cul de sac for our kids (35 years ago) to play kick ball. I would love to go back to see if we can still see it. The “kids” are now in their 30’s and 40’s
No sidewalks where I currently live. Have to walk my puppy through the parking lot to get to the dag area. I taught him to go straight to the nearest parking spot when I say CAR
Happy to say in our street kids (including my son), still do this today :)
We lived on a dead-end so didn't get the kind of traffic a regular street did.
Sorry, we just that the other evening. My husband and I like to play "Worse-miinton" at twilight in the intersection. "Worsemitten" is for those of us who are truly terrible at badminton, don't dare play w/ actual players, but we still hitting the shuttle and laughing at how terrible we are. A successful game for us is a volley of 4 or more hits combined! We've got light up shuttlecocks so we can see them in the dark under the street light and we don't even a net~
And the car wasn't texting while speeding, so you had less of a risk of being run over.
This isn't always in the 80's. As a teen, I can confirm that we still do this.
oh, yes! No cars in the streets of my neighborhood! Athens 1958!!!!!!!!
That's where you played ball, Double Dutch, or had homemade soap box cars trial runs. Usually the youngest kids were the lookouts on either end, but they tended to get distracted and wander off.
We lived in the countryside, so we shouted COMBINE HARVESTER! but to be fair you could hear them coming some way off and you had time to get off the road.
Also had a treehouse....(I built it. Dad said, don't you nail into the tree. So I tied the first boards on and he left me alone...I had a swing, trap door. Great fun for 3-4 years.)
37th Street was our playground in the daytime and at night, we gathered under the street lights in pools of illumination made just for us.
Playing touch football in the street. Thee was always one bully who would purposely push you so hard or trip you so you crashed into the pavement and came up with bloody hands.
There was a school playground a few blocks away. But living on a cul-de-sac meant that spontaneous games could start with friends without having to ask permission to go to the park.
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So I had a bad childhood because I didn't play outside or in the street?
In some ways, yes. There was more freedom back then. I could (and was allowed) just ride my bike the 5 miles to my friends house, or, just randomly wander to see what trouble I’d survive that day…. So, in some ways, yes.
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What if this was the only break you got from being bullied at school and beaten at home? What if you came down with cancer when you were 10 but still remember yelling "car" when you were 9? Anybody who picks one experience and says it means you had an awesome childhood, probably has a hard time putting on Velcro shoes
Footy(AFL) and cricket were the main ones. Sometimes hidey in the dark
It’s hard to explain what made the '80s such an iconic time period.
On an objective level, it was the decade that gave the world MTV and CNN, some of the first instances of personal home computing with IBM and Apple, and the first mobile phone, Motorola DynaTAC 8000X.
It was also a decade of great tragedy with the NASA’s Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and the explosion of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Reactor #4.
But the thing folks talk about the most is the sound of the '80s—its music scene.
Many consider the nostalgia that '80s music creates to be the strongest out there with numerous artists coming back to cover popular songs and sounds from the decade.
One commenter speculated that the '80s was a careless and fun decade. Considering modern day stresses imposed upon new generations, looking back to a decade whose fashion and music sound carefree, it becomes a nice escape for the younger generations.
Taking a break from riding all over the place eating Ding Dongs that came wrapped in aluminum foil, drinking Tang and battling tanks on Atari 2600 before taking off on another adventure!
I show my age by confessing that I knew the names of all the songs these lines came from straight away
There’s also the idea of having parents who listen a lot to '80s music, instilling an interesting sense of nostalgia for their kids as well, even if they didn’t live through it.
Others speculated that it could just be history doing its cyclical thing again. Those who grew up in the '80s are now becoming primary producers of pop culture. Considering all the '80s franchise reboots, Stranger Things and the like, they all come from people who grew up in that era for the people who grew up in that era.
For non-Americans, that's Parental Guidance content rating.
This idea of revivals is further supported by another commenter, who explained that the '70s saw a huge '50s revival with the TV show Happy Days and the movie Grease. Then there was a '60s revival in the '80s with The Doors, The Who, and the like filling entire stadiums. Apply the paradigm far enough and you might just be able to explain why “old” things are hip again.
But that’s just music. Think of the remaining part of pop culture that happened back in the '80s: the Master System, NES. and Atari 7800 all came out in the early part of the decade; Polaroid reached peak popularity during this time; shows like Full House, The Transformers and Duck Tales were huge back then; movies like Back To The Future debuted during the '80s. The list goes on.
Your momma is so stupid/fat/lazy...[insert random offensive insult here]...battle it out, everyone laughs, and we all play dodgeball or G.I. Joe until the street lights came on.
Well, that’s that. If you enjoyed this article, we have plenty more where that came from. Well, not there per se, but the '80s! And you can always check out the Instagram page.
And if you don’t feel like going back in time any more, then why not stay in the present and share your takes and stories in the comment section below!
Why do I feel like driving a drop top 5.0 Mustang all the sudden?
Time Magazine: "The Red Brick Road is supposed to lead travellers from Quadling Country to the great Emerald City. However, in the movie, the road is shown ending up at…Munchkin City Hall."
I watched Sesame Street before there even was an Elmo... And Oscar was orange!
The hole in the ozone layer thanks you for your contribution, hair spray.
anyone else try to find adult content no matter how scrambled the picture was? you got super excited when you thought you sorta kinda saw something.
That's a Honda ATC 90. Fun as hell but basically banned after too many people kept dying on them.
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The title made me laugh as I do remember my childhood phone number and I use it with variations as a password
When I caught my son messing with the router a few years ago, I changed the password to my old phone number from when I was eight. I'll never forget it, but he would never think of it.
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I just started re-listening to some of my favourite’80’s music, eurythmics, police, talking heads, Alison moyet and Kate bush, to name a few. It was a great decade for music
I still remember my parents phone number, (and my childhood best friends' number too. Now as for my own number....NOPE! 😜🙂
As a teen, I could relate to half of these. The other half I knew about but couldn't relate to. I think all the other kids in my school wouldn't even know what a phone book is.
The title made me laugh as I do remember my childhood phone number and I use it with variations as a password
When I caught my son messing with the router a few years ago, I changed the password to my old phone number from when I was eight. I'll never forget it, but he would never think of it.
Load More Replies... I just started re-listening to some of my favourite’80’s music, eurythmics, police, talking heads, Alison moyet and Kate bush, to name a few. It was a great decade for music
I still remember my parents phone number, (and my childhood best friends' number too. Now as for my own number....NOPE! 😜🙂
As a teen, I could relate to half of these. The other half I knew about but couldn't relate to. I think all the other kids in my school wouldn't even know what a phone book is.
